Depression set to become killer disease worldwide

‘Major’ depression is a severe and widespread psychiatric disorder which is on way to becoming a killer disease worldwide.

However, despite extensive investigations, the exact mechanisms that lead to major depression or MD have not been identified.

A series of studies highlight some of the current advances in biological psychiatry, neuroscience and neuroendocrinology which are shedding light on the connection between stress and depression.

The collection (11 research papers) “-Stress-Induced Depression and Comorbidities: From Bench to Bedside”, represents the output of a group of international research institutions, who collaborated around the causal link between stress exposure and depression vulnerability.

“The papers for the collection… deserve timely publication as they are all reflecting forefront research in stress-induced depression spanning from basic to clinical research,” said Bernhard Baune, professor James Cook University, Australia.

“The employed animal models represent state-of-art research, which is promising for furthering the development of clinically relevant interventions in patients with stress-induced depression. All the papers are of high quality,” he added.

Within the collection, preclinical and clinical research papers present the results of an integrated experimental effort, employing methods from biological psychiatry, neuroscience and neuroendocrinology and emphasising how the link between stress and depression can be deeper, said a James Cook release.

Families fear HIV transmission if parent is infected

Two-thirds of families with an HIV-infected parent experienced fears about the virus spreading at home, according to a joint study.

The qualitative study is the first to interview multiple family members, including minor children, in families with an HIV-infected parent.

“We found that many of the worries were based on misconceptions about how HIV is spread,” said study co-author Burt Cowgill, staff researcher at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)/RAND Centre for Adolescent Health Promotion.

“We also learned that HIV-infected parents had legitimate concerns about contracting infections such as a cold, flu or chicken pox while caring for a sick child,” added Cowgill.

“This knowledge could help paediatricians to address children’s specific fears about HIV transmission as well as help clinicians who care for the HIV-infected parents.”

Between March 2004 and March 2005, the team conducted interviews with 33 HIV-infected parents, 27 of their children aged nine to 17, nineteen adult children and 15 caregivers (spouses, partners, grandparents or friends).

All HIV-infected parents had previously participated in RAND’s HIV Cost and Services Utilisation Study, a national probability sample of people over 18 with known HIV infection, according to a UCLA release.

Interview questions were open-ended and broad to elicit a detailed description of family members’ experiences. In addition, follow-up questions focused on whether respondents’ fears subsided over time and what was done in the household to address them.

In a majority of the families, participants reported HIV transmission-related fears in the household. Concerns included acquiring HIV through contact with blood from a parent’s cut, through saliva by sharing a bathroom or kissing, or by sharing food or beverages.

HIV-infected parents were also concerned about catching an opportunistic infection from a sick child or other family member, and they were especially concerned about caring for a child with chicken pox, a cold or the flu.

“Fears about disease may substantially affect the relationship between the HIV-infected parent and child,” said co-author Mark Schuster, chief of general paediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston and professor of paediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

“It is critical not only to provide children with age-appropriate information on how the disease is transmitted, but also to clear up any misconceptions.”

The findings are scheduled for publication in a forthcoming issue of Paediatrics.